On the Maintenance of Fertility in new Arable Land. 287 
tillty has been obtained: the high price of draining- tiles, the 
exceedingly rough condition in which the land lay, the unpropi- 
tious nature of the season during which most of the operations 
were conducted, united to swell the expense of the improvements 
at Whitfield. They might have been perhaps now effected for a 
less expenditure ; but with all this our subject has nothing in 
common : it is with the -permanence of the result, not with its cost, 
that we have to do. On the latter point an overwhelming 
amount of evidence exists that the cost of agricultural improve- 
ment is not such as to make it uniwojitable. 
2ndly. As regards the Farmer. Of course, in the general, it 
is true that land lets for its full value, whatever that may be, and 
however obtained ; but there can be no doubt that the results of 
draining, erection of farm-buildings, and other improvements, 
such as those carried on at Whitfield, are beneficial to the tenant, 
as permitting a profitable concentration of his capital, thus bring- 
ing the application of it more closely under his superintendence. 
And, 3rdly. As regards the Labourer. The effect at Whitfield ' 
has been an increase in the amount of yearly wages paid, from 
about fifteen to upwards of fifty shillings per acre. 
And I may add, 4thly, As regards the national interests, which 
are eminently concerned in any scheme for an increased supply 
of food, that the annual produce of this farm has increased, since 
1838, from a value of .500/. in cheese, butter, young stock, and a 
little wheat, barley, and potatoes, to one of about 1800/. in wheat, 
fat sheep, cattle, and pigs. 
All these circumstances are stated simply as facts — no boast is 
either made or intended — similar results have doubtless been ob- 
tained elsewhere : and the inference to be drawn from all (a legi- 
timate one, if I can show that these are now permanent character- 
istics of the land thus altered) is, that it is decidedly for the interest 
of landoioners to take immediate steps for the proper cultivation of 
their grass lands : that, if this were done, fa7-mers would be bene- 
fited — labourers would be greatly benefited — and that for all a 
permanently increased production of food would be obtained. 
It may now be advisable to enter into some detail in illustration 
of the increased fertility which is asserted to e.sist on this farm. 
The following table exhibits the value of some of its fields ten 
years ago, when the whole of the parish was valued, and their 
valuation now, after having been seven or eight years in cultiva- 
tion : — 
